General Information
The port of Nueva Palmira is located at the junction of the Paraná and Uruguay rivers. It is situated on the East side of the River Uruguay in front of the Parana Bravo branch of the Parana, 248 km from Montevideo by sea.
It is the second Uruguayan port measured by volume of operations. It is found at kilometer zero of the Paraná-Paraguay Waterway. Due to its strategic location and improvements in efficiency, it has become an important port, concentrating cargo from several countries which is then redistributed around the world. It is best suited for loading and unloading of solid bulk cargo, barley, cereals, soybeans, cellulose, liquid and solid fertilizers, etc.
It is made up of a terminal administered by the National Port Authority, the Navios Corporation terminal just downstream, and the Ontur terminal to the North, all within the Nueva Palmira Free Zone.
Official pier
Owned by the National Port Authority, operable depth of 32 feet permitting Panamax vessels to operate.
Ontur terminal
A private multipurpose pier for general and container cargo. One oceanic pier of 180 meters with 34 feet in depth. One fluvial pier of 300 meters with a depth of 4 meters. Two cranes are available on the oceanic pier and one on the fluvial pier. Dedicated mainly to handling cellulose pulp shipments that are brought down the Uruguay river from Fray Bentos.
Navios Corporation terminal
It is the first dedicated grain terminal at the entrance of the Parana-Paraguay Waterway, offering significant benefits and costs savings as the congestion and logistics complications of ports further up river are avoided. Navios Corporation is a division of Navios South American Logistics Inc., one of the largest logistics companies within the Waterway, offering storage and transport to its clients through port terminals, river barges and coastal vessels.
It is a private terminal specialized in the storage and transhipment of general bulk cargo within the Free Zone.
Martin Garcia channel
Martin Garcia is a strategic navigation channel for all the regional commerce. It is part of the system made up of the Plate, Parana and Uruguay rivers.
It runs 106.5 km from km 39 of the Zona Comun Channel of the River Plate, proximal to the Farrallon bank, up to k, 0 of the River Uruguay and has a dredges depth of 34 feet (10.36 meters) with soft bottoms and 38 feet (11.58 meters) with hard bottoms.
It is a one way route for ships up to 245 meters in length and 32.60 meters width.
Ships going upstream into the Martin Garcia channel enter at Km 39 of the River Plate. The vast majority go up empty for the Uruguayan and Argentine terminals on the Uruguay and Parana rivers. Loaded vessels navigate outbound through the channel and in some cases top off at Montevideo or at the Argentine ports of Quequen or Bahia Blanca or eventually ports of Southern Brasil, depending on the type of vessel and cargo.